Medical credit-cards and other financing plans aren’t marketed only to older people, of course: Silver-Greenberg cites a McKinsey study suggesting that Americans overall use credit cards to pay for about $45 billion worth of medical bills annually. But the offers, which often include an initial zero-interest period of anywhere from six to 18 months, can be particularly enticing to people on fixed incomes whose savings can’t absorb a big, unexpected bill. Dental-care financing for retirees appears to be a particularly fast-growing field. Medicare and private insurers for the 65-plus crowd generally exclude dentistry from their coverage (something Obamacare doesn’t change, the Times points out), and dentures and bridgework can get expensive fast.

When these credit arrangements help seniors navigate a short-term cash crunch, everybody’s happy: The health-care provider gets paid up-front, and the patient is able to spread out the financial hit over time. But once that interest-free period is over, interest rates typically range from 25% to 30%, according to the Times, and penalty rates for late payments can rise higher still.

The finance companies appear to be acting within the law, but they’re drawing more attention these days from state regulators and plaintiffs’ lawyers. Consumer advocates argue that the credit plans are often pitched when the seniors are particularly vulnerable – when they’re already in pain, for example – and that many of the contracts are written in deliberately confusing or misleading language. One more point against the credit programs, from critics cited by the Times: They encourage health-care providers to inflate their prices, since customers are less likely to negotiate over a bill that they won’t have to pay all at once.

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About Encore

Encore looks at the changing nature of retirement, from new rules and guidelines for financial security to the shifting identities, needs and priorities of people saving for and living in retirement. Our lead blogger is editor Matthew Heimer, and frequent contributors include editor Amy Hoak, writer Catey Hill, and MarketWatch columnists Elizabeth O’Brien, Robert Powell and Andrea Coombes. Encore also features regular commentary from The Wall Street Journal retirement columnists Glenn Ruffenach and Anne Tergesen and the Director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, Alicia H. Munnell.